Juliet Anne Virginia Stevenson CBE is an English actress. Stevenson was born in Essex, England. She studied at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London, which led to a stage career starting in the early 1980s with the Royal Shakespeare Company.

Although she has gained fame through her television and film work, and has often undertaken roles for BBC radio, she is most notably known as a stage actress. Significant stage roles included the female lead opposite John Malkovich in the UK premier of Burn This in 1990.

Stevenson is best known for her leading role in the film Truly, Madly, Deeply (1991), and her roles in The Secret Rapture (1993), Emma (1996), Bend It Like Beckham (2002) and Mona Lisa Smile (2003).

She has more recently starred in Pierrepoint (2006) (U.S. title Pierrepoint: The Last Hangman), Infamous (2006) as Diana Vreeland and Breaking and Entering (2006) as Rosemary, the therapist.

Known for her ability to profoundly move her audiences, she is regarded by some as one of the greatest English actresses of her generation.